


"Our People"

by Melospiza_melodia



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s03e02 The Search Part II, Episode: s05e16 Doctor Bashir I Presume, Gen, Is familial hurt-comfort a thing?, It is now, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 14:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19111363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melospiza_melodia/pseuds/Melospiza_melodia
Summary: The events of “the Search” leave DS9’s Chief of Security and CMO conflicted and isolated from the rest of the crew.Hurt-comfort resumes in the most platonic and familial way possible.aka Sisko is a dad, Odo is an alien, and Bashir needs a hug.Spoilers for “the Search” and “Dr. Bashir, I Presume?”





	1. The Search

Sisko found himself and his team back on the _Defiant_.  Luckily, this time there were no signs of attacking Jem Hadar.  And just as importantly, he had his entire crew with him.

    Or at least, he conceded, physically with him.  Mentally, it was hard to say. Sisko glanced from his consol.  Overall, the mind-hijaking seemed to have done little to impede his staff.  Dax was at the helm, expertly controlling the ship, and appeared unruffled.  When she felt his eyes on him, she looked up and gave an encouraging smile. Of course, with her vast experience, the Founders’ simulation wasn’t even in the top 10 of the strangest things she had lived through.

    O’Brien was busy scanning the area for any trackers and appeared to be absorbed in his task.  Kira, meanwhile, was comming in a message to the station. Both she and O’Brien appeared tired, and Kira had a worried frown on her face.   _Still no action required on my part._

Sisko had dismissed Odo to the back barracks, murmuring, “Take all the time you need.”  He knew the Constable might benefit from work to distract himself, but at some point he’d need to face his discovery on the planet; Sisko knew from experience that trauma was best not buried, and Odo was the type to see trauma and reach for a shovel.  Now that Odo was alone and processing, he shouldn’t be one of Sisko’s major concerns.

He still was.

His other major concern walked up to him and ran a tricorder along his temple.  “Just hold still, sir,” Julian Bashir requested.

“Any signs of harm to the others?”  Sisko asked.

“None that I can see,”  Julian said. “Their vitals read normally, if a bit malnourished and dehydrated, but those of us who were in the simulation appear to be in need of NREM sleep.”

“NREM only?”  Dax asked, eyebrows raised.

“The simulation mimicked the brain waves of REM sleep, but allowed none of the normal fluctuations into NREM.  Rest and food are recommended, and,” he turned back to Sisko, “short shifts for a few days. You’re all clear, sir.”

Sisko nodded and examined his CMO.  Staring into his eyes, Sisko tried and failed to suppress the memory of pulling Julian away from the corpse, of the stench of burned flesh catching in his throat, the way he could feel Julian become boneless, the way Julian’s eyes couldn’t seem to remember how to blink.  He tried and failed to suppress the familiarity of it, tried to drown out the echoes of another firefight when he had been the one dragged away. He blinked hard until he saw indigo spots in his vision, because then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have to see her body again.  

He failed.  He always did.  But it was a failure he had learned to live with.  Sisko looked into Julian’s eyes and saw how they were made of paper—blank and fragile.   _He’s running on auto-pilot just to fulfill his duty._

“Have you checked on Odo yet, Doctor?”  Sisko said, carefully professional.

“Once, but only the basic tests.  I intend to do a more thorough analysis once we are on the station.”

“Why don’t you check on him once more, and then get some rest in the back?”

Bashir pushed back.   _He doesn’t want to process it._ “But sir, you may need me—”

Sisko held up a hand.  “That’s an order, Doctor.  Rest. And well done.”

The doctor hesitated, then gave him a brief nod and left to join Sisko’s other major concern in the back.  Julian couldn’t hide the moment his mask slipped, and relief coupled with dread on his face. Sisko pursed his lips and was glad that their experience was just an illusion.

_I’m glad his pain will be gone when we get home._

Sisko turned back to his consol.  Dax cast him a knowing look, but only said, “Two hours until we reach DS9.”

 

Odo found himself staring at the back wall.  When he closed his eyes, he could still feel the whoosh of air under his wings, the sheer exhilaration of it.  When he closed his eyes, he could hear Nerys congratulating him on finding his people. When he closed his eyes, he could smell the air of his homeworld, and he could see his people smiling.  When he opened them, all he could see were the shackles on his friends’ wrists and the angle of their lolling heads. All he could hear was the whine of the machines that tested their reactions.  All he could feel was the void of staring at a face so like his own, and realizing he was more alone in the universe than ever.

There was a scuffling noise behind him.  Odo turned to see Dr. Bashir enter the room.  The doctor sat down heavily on the bunk across from Odo and grabbed a medical tricorder.

“Please Doctor,  we’ve been through this already.  I’m fine.”

“The Captain told me to give you another once over, just to be sure.”  Bashir ran the tricorder up and down Odo’s body.

“And you and I both know he wanted an excuse to get you away from the others, because he’s concerned about your behavior,” Odo griped, letting himself fall into the familiar pattern:   _here’s a new person--analyze them, before they analyze you_.

Odo sighed, and the bite and the volume left his voice.  “It must be nice to have fellow humans to look after you.”

Bashir snapped the tricorder shut, face suddenly blank.  “I think he’s also worried about you. I know Kira is.”

Odo gave him a hard stare.  Bashir seemed much more shaken by the simulation than the others—but it was clear that whatever his issue was, he didn’t wish to discuss it.  “Doctor—” he began, then he shook his head. Odo dropped his voice and his gaze, staring at his hands. “I’ve spent most of my life wondering if I was alone in the universe. If I was the only being like me. The only one who can understand me. Now I’ve found that there are others who can understand me, but I can’t understand them.  Nor do I wish to.”

Odo looked up. The doctor for the first time met his gaze.  Inside, there was a flash of comprehension deeper than Odo ever expected.  A memory seemed to be surfacing. Bashir swallowed. “Odo.” His voice was almost lost in the hum of the engines. “You don’t have to be like your people, and learning more about them won’t make you like them.  Every species has its flaws, its aspects that you detest and cannot fathom. That doesn’t mean you have to disown them entirely.”

Odo harrumphed.   “Really, Doctor? You think even humans have flaws?”

Bashir’s jaw tightened, and he dropped his gaze.  

“I thought not.”

“They’re there, just...ignored.  Glossed over. Hate, prejudice, discrimination… But we are past the worst of it, of course,” he said hurriedly.

“Of course.”

Both men sat and listened to the engines.  Finally, Bashir whispered, “I’m sorry about your people.  But know that it doesn’t matter to anyone here _what_ you are—you are still one of us.”

“Thank you Doctor,” Odo said.  He kept his eyes down. “And I’m sorry they made you see the death of someone you cared for.”

He felt rather than saw Bashir start.   “I’m that obvious?”

“I’ve seen the expression before.”   _During the Occupation._

“But—but it wasn’t real!  It was smoke and mirrors, and I know it!  It shouldn’t affect me the same way.” Bashir floundered.

“Until you are on the station and find this person again, you may know that logically, Doctor, but emotionally you won’t be convinced.”

Bashir dropped his gaze.

They reached DS9 without incident.  For once, Bashir seemed content to spend the trip in silence.  When they arrived, Odo and the others submitted themselves for a series of tests (all returned negative) and were ordered by Sisko to get some rest.  Odo found himself walking out of the infirmary with Sisko, Nerys, and Bashir.

“Want to grab a late dinner?”  Kira asked.

“Let me check on Jake, then I’ll meet you at Quark’s,” Sisko replied.

“You guys go ahead--there’s someone I need to see,”  Bashir said. He cast Odo a thankful glance and bounded across the Promenade, ducking into a certain tailor’s shop.  

“What’s gotten into him?” Kira mused.

Sisko gave a small smile.  “Healing.”

“With Garak? Are you sure we shouldn’t stop him?”

“He’s a doctor—he knows his remedies,” Sisko said.  He tore his eyes away from the tailor shop and Kira followed suit.  “Do you want to join us, Constable?”

“Sorry?” Odo shook himself.   _It was Garak?_

“Join us,” Sisko repeated.  “For dinner.”

Odo looked back and forth between Sisko and Kira.  The major offered him a gentle smile.

“I would like that very much, Captain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Sisko at al. know Odo doesn't eat, but Sisko also knows that dinner means family. He inevitably arrives late for dinner because of Jake, leaving Kira and Odo alone for an hour. That's right--Sisko is the first one to hook them up. You thought it would be Jadzia, didn't you?  
> As always, constructive criticism is welcome!


	2. Dr. Bashir, I Presume?

    The constable sat down in the war room, looking up as the rest of the senior staff came in.  Sisko was first. He leaned against the head of the table looking pensive. Kira was next. She sat down beside Odo and said to him, “Do you know what this is about?”

    Odo shook his head.  Both turned to Sisko, but he merely said, “Wait.”

    Julian was the next into the room, tailed by Chief O’Brien.  O’Brien sat down opposite the major. The doctor paced the room, lips tight.  He didn’t join the table until Dax and Worf arrived and Sisko called the meeting.  Then he sat down opposite Odo, at Sisko’s right hand. The captain remained standing.

    Sisko frowned at the table, then looked each of his staff in the eye before beginning.  “There is going to be a Federation-wide release of rather personal information tomorrow.  I believe those of us in this room have a right to know the information beforehand, and that it will ease the functioning of our station if we do it privately.”

    “What sort of information?” Worf asked.  “And whose privacy is it invading?”

    “That of Dr. Bashir.”

    Silence engulfed the room.  “Julian?” Dax turned toward the doctor, her brow furrowed.  O’Brien tensed, the shift in his shoulders indicating _soldier_ more than _engineer_.  

    “Before we get ahead of ourselves—”

    “No, Captain.”  The doctor’s voice was uncharacteristically soft, the syllables clipped. “Let’s tell them in full, and let them respond in full.”

    Sisko hesitated, muttered down,  “Julian, are you sure?”

    “Yes, sir.”  Julian's eyes never left the table.  At this point, O’Brien grimaced, as if tasting his half-digested lunch.

    “As you will, Doctor.”

    All eyes turned to Bashir.  He took a deep breath, and then, eyes never meeting theirs, explained.  “The Federation-wide announcement is of my, ah, genetic status.”

    Dax frowned.  “They have no right to release that information.”

    “In this case, I’m afraid they do.”  Julian ran a hand through his hair. “You see, it is not so much _what_ my genes are as it is _how_ I acquired them.”

    Odo cleared his throat.  “I thought that there was no such thing as illegal parentage in the Federation.”

“That’s because there isn’t,” Worf said.

    “No, but there are illegal...medical procedures.”  Julian began worrying the edge of his uniform sleeve, picking at his rank pits. For a moment he seemed to hold his breath.  Sisko set a hand on his shoulder, and the doctor’s hand stilled.

“As a child, I was taken to Ardigeon Prime.” The doctor struggled to keep his voice from wavering as he continued.  “The doctors there manipulated my genetic structure. I had been deemed too forgetful, too slow, too inept as a child.  My memory, my reflexes, my intelligence were all hand-picked to be… superior, down to the last nucleotide. When I left those labs… I don’t remember much.  I didn’t know what had happened until I was 15.”

    “And by that point in time you were determined to join Starfleet,” Dax recalled.  

    “I wanted to be a doctor,” Julian met her eyes.  “And after I learned I was artificial, I wanted distance from my parents.  I wanted a chance to start anew.”

    “And Starfleet is known for redemption,” Odo said.  

“Redemption,” Julian echoed.  The word sounded as distant as the Delta Quadrant.  

Worf glanced at him and pursed his lips. “Perhaps you were right to.  But it is illegal for someone with enhancements to join Starfleet or to practice medicine.”

Kira’s expression had been darkening throughout the conversation.  Here, she could contain herself no longer. “Are you saying it was illegal for Julian to save our lives?”

Julian dropped his gaze again.  Almost imperceptibly, his hands shook.

Sisko cut in. “I’m afraid it was, Major.  And now that the secret is out, I’m afraid Starfleet wishes for any further life-saving to be prohibited.”

“You’re not going to replace Julian, Benjamin,” Jadzia admonished.

“The timing is… inconvenient, to say the least,” Worf said.  “With the war—”

“Captain, you can’t—”

“People.” Sisko held his hand up.  “If Dr. Bashir was going to be replaced, I would not have put him through this procedure.  If any of you needed to leave, for any reason, I would let you go if it was by your choice, and otherwise I will fight for your right to stay.  Starfleet has reached an agreement with Dr. Bashir’s family—his father is going to prison. However, after the news release I expect there will be a wave of anti-Augment sentiment, so I want all of you on the alert.  I also want to make it clear that I expect each and every one of you to continue as professionally as before, and not to let personal prejudices get in the way of our work. Anything to the contrary will result in disciplinary action.  Is that understood?”

Everyone at the table nodded.  

“Dismissed.”

Chairs scraped back.  Julian tried to make a bolt for the door, but Sisko held out his arm.  “One moment, Doctor.” He turned Julian away from the others and whispered into his ear.  Reassurances, most likely, as once he was done Julian straightened and smiled hesitantly.

On her way out, Lt. Dax pulled him into a hug and told him, “If you need anything, let me know.”

O’Brien echoed the gesture and the sentiment.  His eyes were still worried, but the soldier’s stance was gone.

Worf merely gave him a nod, then walked out with O'Brien. The two barely cleared the door before the Chief raised his voice.  

Kira hugged the doctor, promising, “If anyone gives you trouble, tell me, and I’ll give them hell.”

With a backward glance, she left with Sisko, leaving Odo and the doctor alone in the room.  Julian stared at the closed door, wearing a smile and tears on his cheeks. He wiped the tears away with a cough.

    “Doctor.”

    Julian looked up and met Odo’s gaze.  “Yes, Constable?”

“You have an eidetic memory, I take it? After all, why settle for good when perfect is an option.”

Julian's shoulders tensed, smile gone. “Yes, I do.”

    “Then I just want to say:  I’m sorry about your people.  But it doesn’t matter to anyone here _what_ you are—you are still one of us.”  

    That earned him a choked laugh.  “Thanks, Odo.”

    Odo tilted his head.  “You don’t believe you’ve earned this.”

    “Frankly...no.  I don’t. Odo, I’m—”

    “—An Augment, I know, and I am aware of the history.  But you don’t have to be like your people any more than I have to be like mine—and you had meant Augments in that conversation, hadn’t you?”

    Bashir nodded silently.

    “Does Garak know?”

    “I always suspected that he did, but if he doesn’t, I’m sure he knows by now,”  Julian said, keeping his gaze firmly level. With a nod of understanding, Odo left the room. The door hummed shut behind him.

    Alone, Julian cast glances at various corners of the room and whispered, “I’m sorry.”  Face unreadable, he locked the door behind him.

    In his quarters, Garak closed his feeds to the war room.  He had to prepare for his dinner guest, who had just ended the greatest performance of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very different take of Garak's POV for me, because I didn't want to give it away. I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> As always, constructive criticism is welcome. :)


End file.
